Whiting: Libyan embassy attack recalls other civilians who serve

As China's Cultural Revolution starts to heat up in Hong Kong, these Red Guard sympathizers in May 1967 read sayings from Chairman Mao's "little red book." The confrontation was on the island in Central District and Columnist David Whiting was living in Hong Kong while his father served as deputy consul general.DAVID WHITING, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

I can't stop watching reports of the attack on the American embassy in Libya.

Although far worse, the tragedy stirs old memories. My father served as deputy consul general in Hong Kong at the height of China's deadly Cultural Revolution.

Corroborated by declassified documents, news reports and extensive interviews, here's a little family history, a history that that offers a glimpse of what our diplomats, CIA, Foreign Service and other civilians and their families face:

May 22, 1967: Twelve years old, I glance out the window of a bus that takes students from King George V School in Kowloon to the Star Ferry. We're on a strange road and I'm worried. The adult onboard says nothing.

The bus rolls onto a barge. Feeling like the bus could tip, we crowd the lower deck, trying to figure out what's going on.

I later discover things have turned ugly at Government House, the British governor's official residence and a symbol of the Crown's rule since 1855.

The U.S. consulate is a football field away. My father is deputy consul. With more than 300 Americans -- half CIA -- the consulate is the largest in the world.

Thousands of chanting demonstrators converge. Blood is spilled; 167 people are arrested. The government announces a curfew; closes schools. I'm forbidden to go downtown – which ensures I go.

A week later, to ease Foreign Service officers' stress, my mother asks our servants to prepare a dinner party. That night, my father is informed a friend of his, a fellow Foreign Service officer, has disappeared while checking out a hotspot on Kowloon.

The friend suddenly appears at the party after convincing a gang he was a Catholic priest. The group is overwhelmed with relief.

• • •

June 3: Beijing tells Hong Kong Chinese: "Be ready to respond to the call of the motherland to smash the reactionary rule of the British."

Days later, our limo driver heads down Garden Road in Central District. I hardly recognize the American Consulate, an ivory-colored four-story building. There are walls of sandbag. Razor wire surrounds the building. Armed Marines guard battlements.

I'm shaken, scared.

Hidden from view but just up the hill, hundreds of heavily armed elite British forces stand ready. Many are the fathers of my classmates, crazy-tough Cockney kids.

• • •

June 8: As riots rage below, my mother steps out of a black Mercedes high on The Peak. She and my father arrive for a black tie dinner at Taikoo House, the residence for Butterfield and Swire, a legendary British trading company.

My father tells her that just hours earlier rioters took hostage the firm's shipyard manager. He doesn't mention other unreleased information of the day, that police have killed three demonstrators.

My father adheres to the intelligence community's code: Talk to no one on the outside about what you know, not even family.

At the time, Butterfield and Swire adheres to the code that the West rules, a colonial philosophy with ripples that still affects developing nations.

July 8: Hong Kong police and Chinese militia clash on the border. Five policemen are killed, 11 wounded. The next day, a sixth officer is killed. The killing is a 20-minute walk from my house.

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As China's Cultural Revolution starts to heat up in Hong Kong, these Red Guard sympathizers in May 1967 read sayings from Chairman Mao's "little red book." The confrontation was on the island in Central District and Columnist David Whiting was living in Hong Kong while his father served as deputy consul general. DAVID WHITING, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Red Guard sympathizers stage a peaceful protest in late May 1967 in Hong Kong's Central District. Columnist David Whiting was in middle school while his father served as deputy consul general. Many such protests quickly turned bloody. DAVID WHITING, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
A police officer stands guard near the American consulate in Hong Kong in 1967. The razor wire blocks off a road after demostrations turned violent as China's Cultural Revolution spilled into the British colony. DAVID WHITING, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Allen Whiting, left, and his wife, Alice, arrive by ship in Hong Kong Harbor in August 1966. Whiting, Columnist David Whiting's father, was returning to the colony as deputy consul general. The couple's first stint in the colony was in the 1950s. COURTESY DAVID WHITING
Hong Kong's main road to Government House and the U.S. consulate is closed while demonstrators behind the buildings clash with police in front of Government House in Central District in May 1967. The photo is taken from a speeding car. Columnist David Whiting lived in Hong Kong while his father served as the American deputy consul general. Fifty-one people were killed in the colony by the end of 1967. BY DAVID WHITING, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Diplomatic passports such as this one generally mean significant privileges. This one was held by Columnist David Whiting when he was in middle school and the son of the American deputy consul general in Hong Kong. DAVID WHITING, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Red Guard sympathizers stage a peaceful protest in late May 1967 in Hong Kong's Central District. Columnist David Whiting was in middle school while his father served as deputy consul general. Many such protests quickly turned bloody. DAVID WHITING, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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